Recount after shock Le Pen poll

THE COMPANY behind an opinion poll that placed the far-right leader Marine Le Pen as the favourite candidate in the first round of the presidential election is to re-do the poll.

Louis Harris Interactive, which carried out the poll on behalf of the newspaper Le Parisien, is to run the poll again, testing the scenario with two different Socialist Party candidates: Dominique Straus-Kahn and François Hollande.

The head of the department that carried out the poll, Jean-Daniel Lévy, said that the review would be carried out at the beginning of this week and had not been ordered by the Commission des sondages.
Mr Lévy did not say if the results would be published.

Registered voters were asked to choose their preferred candidate as if the first round of voting in the presidential election (due to take place May 2012) were to happen that weekend.

Front National leader Marine Le Pen topped the list with 23 per cent, against Socialist Party leader Martine Aubry and President Nicolas Sarkozy, who both scored 21 per cent.

The leader of the centre party MoDem, François Bayrou, came fourth with eight per cent, followed by former PM Dominique de Villepin and green MEP Eva Joly, on seven per cent.

The far left candidates Olivier Besancenot (NPA) and Jean-Luc Mélenchon (Parti de gauche) won five per cent.

The poll of 1,618 registered voters was taken between February 28 and March 3.

Some have attacked the poll's methods and timing.

Its publication comes during discussions between President Sarkozy and ex-PM Dominique de Villepin over the latter's decision to run for president, a scenario that would split the vote of the centre-right UMP.

The Socialist Party is also waiting to hear the managing director of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, confirm or deny he will run for president.

Neither the original poll nor the rerun include Ségolène Royal as a possible Socialist Party candidate.

News website and magazine Rue 89 has attacked the poll's methods, claiming the results demonstrate why France needs clearer laws about the financing of such polls.

STORY: Polls should be more transparent

The site said that the poll's findings were particularly weak, being so far from the presidential election and so near to Le Pen's victory to become leader of the Front National and the resulting media attention.

The poll was also carried out by internet, making it less likely that those canvassed would have been as sincere in their responses as by telephone or face-to-face.

Others are interpreting the poll as a warning. The former Socialist Party leader François Hollande told reporters at the weekend that the party should work together to prevent another "April 21".

The date, notorious in the party's history, marks the day in 2001 when Jean-Marie Le Pen knocked Socialist Party candidate Lionel Jospin into third place, allowing the Front National leader to enter the second round of the presidential election.

Photo: Front National